166 
AVES. 
j and the head, but not the neck, devoid of feathers. They are birds of moderate size, and in strength 
do not approach the Vultures properly so called ; hence they are even more addicted to carrion and 
aU sorts of filth, which attract them from afar. They do not even disdain to feed on excrement. 
The Wliite Neophron Lin.)— Little larger than a Raven; the adult male [and probably also 
the old female] white, with black quill-feathers ; the female and young brown. [It is common in Africa, and the 
countries bordering the Mediterranean ; rare in the north of Europe : has been once killed in England.] It fol- 
lows the caravans in the desert, to devour all that dies. ! 
The Urubu (F. jota, Ch. Bonap.), or Carrion Crow of the Anglo-Americans.— The same size and form as the 
preceding, but with a stouter bill, and the head entirely naked ; plumage wholly deep black. It abounds in the 
temperate and hot parts of America, [and is generally ranged in Cathartes. One or more additional true Neo- 
phrons, however, exist in Africa.] 
The Griffins {Gypdetos, Storr),— 
Placed by Gmelin in his genus Falco^ approximate the Vultures rather in their habits and conformation : 
they have the eyes even with the head ; the claws proportionally feeble ; wings half-extended when at 
rest ; the craw, when full, projecting at the bottom of the neck : hut their head is completely covered 
with feathers ; [and they have only thirteen cervical vertebrae, which is one more than in any of the 
Falcons ; the Neophrons and Gallinazos possessing fourteen, and the Condors and true Vultures fifteen. 
The sternum is proportionally short, and very broad.] Their distinctive characters consist in a very 
strong, straight beak, hooked at the point, and inflated on the curve ; nostrils covered [owl-hke] with 
stiflf hairs directed forward ; and a pencil of similar hairs under the beak ; their tarsi are short, and 
feathered to the toes ; and their wings long, having the third quill longest. 
The Bearded Gritfin, or Lammer-geyer, (F barbatus, and Falco barbatus, Gm.).— This is the largest bird of prey 
belonging to the Eastern Continent : it inhabits the high chains of mountains, but is not very common. It 
nestles in inaccessible acclivities ; attacks Lambs, Goats, the Chamois, and even, it is said, sleeping Man [or 
persons standing on the edge of a precipice] ; it is pretended that children have been sometimes carried away by 
it, [a statement recently confirmed by facts, in more than one instance]. Its method is to force animals over steep 
precipices, and to devour them when disabled by the fall. It does not, however, refuse dead bodies. Its length 
is nearly five feet (French), and extent of wing from nine to ten feet. This bird is the Phene of the Greeks, and 
the Ossifraga of the Latins. [The species of the Himmalayas is considered to be different.] 
The Falcons {Falco, Lin.) — * 
Constitute the second, and by much the most numerous division of the diurnal birds of prey. They 
have the head and neck covered with feathers ; their eye-brows [except in the Ospreys] form a pro- 
jection which occasions the eye to appear sunk, and imparts a very different character to their phyi* 
siognomy from that of the Vultures : the majority of them subsist on living prey ; but they differ much ^ 1 1 
in the amount of courage displayed in the pursuit of it. Their first plumage is often differently Mi 
coloured from the adult, and they do not [in most instances] assume the latter for three or four!.^,il( 
years, — a circumstance which has occasioned the species to have been greatly multiplied by nomencla-*' j 
tors. The female is generally one-third larger than the male, which, on this account, has been namedj| u| 
a tercel. j ' 
^ i 
It is necessary to subdivide this genus first into two sections. ||j i 
The Falcons, properly so called, {Falco, Bechstein), commonly termed the Noble Birds of Prey, — ®{] \ 
Compose the first. They are the most courageous i^Pi 
proportion to their size, a quality which is derived from^’? 
the power of their armature and wings. Their heakpii 
(fig. 74), curved from its base, has a sharp tooth on each^ ;*' 
side near the point ; and the second quill of their wings | : 
is the longest, the first nearly equalling it, which renders^ 
the entire wing longer and more pointed. From this, 5^ 
also, result particular habits : the length of the quills of^ • 
their wings weakens their efforts to ascend vertically, and j 
renders their forward flight, in a calm state of the at- ig 
mosphere, very oblique, necessitating them, when they ; 
Fig. 74.-Beak of Jer Falcon. j.jgg (jjjectly, to fly against the wind. They are | 
